July 2008 Issue

Direct Mail Strategy: Boost Readership, Jump-start Response
Are you a writer, approving manager, agency client or business owner who writes and/or approves direct mail copy? Then read on. This column provides copywriting best practices based on experience; testing; and the wisdom of copywriting greats like Bob Stone,...

Direct Selling: Information Plus Emotion
Answer this question: Why do people buy from you? Seems like a simple question, but it can be difficult to answer for many companies. The fact is, people buy for various reasons, but ultimately, most people make their buying decisions...

E-Commerce Link: Preferential Treatment
Preference centers are an important part of any good e-mail program. In fact, I believe they’re a must-have component. Building good preference centers starts with the registration process and the information collected when individuals sign up for communications. Then, their...

The Rise of Direct Marketing Freeconomics
Direct marketers are finding out that when it comes to business intelligence, you may actually get more from what you don’t pay for. As risk tolerance changes with the economy, so does the level of financial accountability. Pencil sharpeners battle...

Nuts & Bolts: 5 Minute Interview
For marketers who provide seasonal products, driving off-season sales is often challenging. However, by using predictive analytics, Billie Phillips, vice president of marketing at the Salem, Mass.-based candy company Harbor Sweets, was able to identify “at-risk” customers and market to...

Famous Last Words : Ugly Works!
In May, my wife, Peggy, and I went to Normandy for a three-day total immersion into D-Day and World War II. The biggest town in the area is Caen (pronounced caw, with the “n” silent), and we stayed at the...

Market Focus: Private Pilots
If you want to reach a wealthy demographic that’s comfortable spending a decent amount of money on leisure activities, you could do worse than private pilots who fly their own airplanes. After all, how many people can afford to spend...

Nuts & Bolts: Eye on Privacy
During the past few months, a great deal of attention has been paid to the issue of online behavioral advertising (OBA). It’s been driven mostly by large companies in the Internet advertising space and trade associations responding to a set...

Editor’s Notes
“The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The leader adjusts the sails,” goes the quote from leadership guru John C. Maxwell. It’s good advice to keep in mind at the present, when many of the...

How Friendly Is Your SEM?
Search engine marketing, both paid and natural varieties, is an ever-changing landscape. Not in the least, because as more people go online to search out solutions for their challenges, marketers are shifting ad dollars to better their products’ and services’...

Personas 2.0
Open. It’s not just the sign on a retail shop door—it’s an imperative and a state of mind for consumers. The successful open brand must operate under a new set of rules, embracing social Web-empowered consumers and their impact on...